HUMAN HYBRIDOMAS SECRETING MONOCLONAL ANTITREPONEMAL ANTIBODIES RAISED AFTER IN-VITRO STIMULATION OF HUMAN-LYMPHOCYTES

Peripheral blood lymphocytes from patients with syphilis were stimulat ed in vitro against Treponema pallidum extract and consequently were f used with mouse myeloma cells to raise heterohybridomas secreting spec ific human antibodies. In these experiments, 5 heterohybridomas were s elected which were shown to secrete monoclonal antibodies which recogn ized treponemal antigens. Some of the monoclonal (Mab 1C12, Mab 1D11) react with antigens specific to T. pallidum while others (Mab 2A2, Mab 2C8, Mab 2C11) bind to treponemal components which demonstrated group specificity.